Fire extinguisher support



Dec. 6, 1938. H. E. HEIGIS 2,

- FIRE'EXTINGUISHEKSUPPORT Filed March 28, 1956 I 3125 i 75 I9 I [7 x 9 w ill! r1 I I l .1 57 4 i 55 6/ 55 59 FIGURE, 5

FIGURE 1 RECHARGE TOSET-PUTFULL EXTINGUISHER ON HOOK "ADJLST EIN FLLSH WI H USC FACE FIGURE 2 v m'vENToR HENRY ERNEST Hams XfTORNEY pasta 1).... 6, 1938 2,139,634

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE FIRE EXTINGUISHER SUPPORT Henry Ernest Heigis, West Orange, .N. 1., assignor to Walter Kidde & Company, Inc., Bloom- 'field, N. J., a corporation of New York Application March 28, 1936, Serial NIL-71,359

10 Claims. (Cl. 116-114) The present invention relates to supporting ments necessary for a'portable extinguisher of means for portable fire extinguishing apparatus the type herein referred to are not shown or deof the type which is normally suspended from scribed because those elements do not form any wall brackets or the like and is so arranged that part of this invention. 5 the extinguishing apparatus is readily accessible With reference to the support specifically, at 6 in time of need. 9 is shown a base, or supporting member, which The invention relates more specifically to a may be secured to any suitable structure as for support for a portable fire extinguishing apparainstance by screws or bolts through the holes ll tus of the type which retains flre extinguishing which appear in Figure 2. The base is formed 10 fluid under pressure in a container, as for exwith two lugs l3 and [5 only one of which is 10 ample carbonic acid gas. shown in Figure 1. The lugs are provided with The present invention is an improvement on bearing holes in which a shaft ll may be secured the invention describedand claimed in the patent and supported. On the shaft is mounted a memgranted to me September 27, 1932, No. 1,879,228 her is that may rotate on the shaft l'l. On one in which means were provided to indicate the loss end of the member I9 is a hook 2| for engaging 15 of weight of the extinguishing fluid, such as a hole in a lug 23 provided on the valve 3. might occur by leakage of the fluid under pres- An indicator guide and container 25 is fastened sure or by tampering with the release valve of to the lugs 13 and i5 by some means such as by the apparatus, as well as .by actual intentional welding. The guide 25 is made of one piece of use thereof. metal formed in a manner to provide two flaps 29. 20

a One object. of my invention is to provide a It is these two flaps which are welded to the lugs support which eliminates the guard for the op- 13 and I5, and thus serve to support the reerating handle oi the valve, or other release mainder of the indicator guide. On both sides of means of the extinguisher, that was provided to the. guide are guide slides proper 3| and 33 deter tampering with the valve. formed by lapping the metal back on itself and it 25 Another object is to provide a simplified is in these slides that the indicator disc 35 slides. mechanism to indicate the loss of weight in the The indicator disc shown in detail in Figure 3 is extinguisher which will clearly indicate that there provided with a hole 36 the purpose of which will has been a loss of weight. be explained hereinafter. Between the slides 3| Further objects which are not specifically set and 33 and joining them is a member 31 which so forth will be apparent as the invention is deindicates by a sign 38,shown in detail in Figure 4, scribed in greater detail in connection with the that the extinguisher should be removed and re-- accompanyingdrawing and as set forth in the charged. A hole 39 similar to the hole 36 is appended claims. centrally located on the member 25. In order to Figure 1 is a cross-sectional view in elevation keep the indicator disc in the guides so that it 35 of the embodiment of the present invention with will not wobble and to prevent the disc from a portable extinguisher supported thereby. binding on the pin so that it would move with the Figure 2 is a front view in elevation of the pin when the pin is being withdrawn, the two pp Figure 1 from which t e d c tord c projections 30 are provided on the indicator guide 40 has been removed. 25. If these projections were not provided, the 40 Figure 3 s a v of the d at s disc would be free to hit against the back of the Figure 4 1S View Of the P01111011 0f e pp fl indicator guide 25 and accordingly the disc may which the indicator disc normally covers. not drop as rapidly as is desired. With reference to the drawing, Figure 1, illus- The member I! has an extension arm 3! that trates a container l for a fluid fir uishing rises from the main portion r the member is at 45 medium, as .for instance, carbon dioxide. such an angle thatit may move toward and away Mounted on the container l is a valve 3 to confrom the back of the indicator guide without trol the discharge of the fluid from the container. striking it. A stop 32 is provided between the Mounted on the valve 3 is a handwheel 6 by which lugs l3 and I! to prevent the arm 3| from going the valve may be opened or closed. In order that back too far. 7 At he upperend of the arm 3| is a 50 the valve handwheel may not a be Jarred in a hole 33 in which an adjusting pin 35 is held manner which will open the valve when it is not securely by the set screw 31. The amount that desired, as for instance during shipment, a lockthe pin 33 may extend out in front of the arm 3| ing pin 1 is provided to prevent turning of the may be regulated by loosening the set screw 31 56 handwheel relative to the valve. All of the eleand sliding the pin in the hole 33. The hole 33 is drilled at such an angle that the pin 45 may pass through the opening 39 in the guide member and support the indicator disc 35 under certain conditions. Then the pin extends through the holes 36 and 39' the pin supports the indicator disc over the sign 33 and the disc covers the sign 38 until the pin is removed. The member l9 has another arm 5| which extends in a direction opposite to the arm 4|. Between a face 53 of this arm and the base 9 of the indicator is placed a spring 55 which has been precompressed. The purpose of precompressing the spring will be discussed hereinafter.

The base 9 has a raised portion 51 and the face 53 of the arm 5! has a sunken portion 59 in order to center the spring and hold it in place. Between the face 53 and the base 9 and lying loose within the spring 55 is a wooden compression stop 6 l This stop will prevent overcompression of the spring since that would deform the spring and tend to push the spring out of position. A further purpose of the stop 6| is to prevent the arm 41 from over-riding due to over-compression of the spring and cause it to strike. or injure the back member 25.

The operation of the indicator will now be described in detail. When an extinguisher is hung onthe hook 2| the weight of the extinguisher will tend to make the member I9 rotate on the shaft The degree of rotation that will take place depends'on the weight of the extinguisher. The

rotation, of course, will be stopped by'the c'ompression spring. The spring that is used, of course, is a standard spring for the particular type of extinguisher that is to be supported. Hence, the weight of the extinguisher, acting on its particular type of spring, will determine whether the spring will compress, or not. If the extinguisher is underweight it will not compress the spring and if it is overweight it will compress so far that thespring stop 6| will stop all rotation of the member 19.

As the member I9 is rotated the arm 4| will also rotate on the shaft l1 and the pin 45 will move into the hole 39 of the guide member and extend between the guides through the hole 36 of the indicator disc and support the disc. The distance which it extends through the hole 39 depends on the position of the pin and the weight of the-extinguisher.

Care must be taken in designing the spring in order that it will function in a manner which will operate the indicator when there is a-decrease of fire extinguisher fluid in the portable flre extinguisher apparatus with which it is associated. '.If the indicator is used with a standard weight portable extinguisher in which for instance the amount of me extinguishing fluidstore'd is fifteen pounds, the spring is then compressed to a point where it can resist compression from a weight which is equal to the weight of the extinguisher apparatus proper plus the minimum weight of fluid which the extinguisher apparatus must contain to be effective, for example, twelve pounds. Thus when a fully charged extinguisher is placed on the hook there will only be a compression movement of the spring due to the three pounds difference between the weight of the charged extinguisher and the 'precompression of the spring.

Should any fluid escape from the extinguisher the spring will tend to extend to its full length as the weight of fluid in the extinguisher falls.

When the weight of fluid in the extinguisher has fallen to the minimum eflective weight it is desirable to have an indication of the loss of weight so that the condition may be remedied.

The indication is' given by the dropping of the indicator 35 in the guides due to the force of gravity and thus-exposing the back member on which appropriate wording appears. The purpose of the adjusting pin 45 is now apparent since the position to which the pin may be adjusted determines the point at which the indicator will drop. This point may be fixed for a very slight decrease in weight'of the extinguishing fluid, or,

if it is desired, a very large decrease in weight may be necessary to let the indicator disc drop.

It should be noted that when the fire extinguisher, supported on a device as shown and described herein, is required for use it is merely necessary to lift the extinguisher off the supporting hook. If an empty or partially empty extinguisher is placed on the hook the indicator cannot be made to take a non-indicating position. It will be only by placing a fully charged extinguisher on the hook that the disc may be made to take a non-indicating position.

It will be seen accordingly that a novel type of support for portable fire extinguishing apparatus is provided which incorporates a simple and effective lossof weight indicator that will come into action immediately upon theoccurrence of the predetermined loss of weight to be indicated, without any intermediate position of the indicator being possible.

From the foregoing disclosure it will be apparent that this invention resides in certain principles ofconstruction which may-be employed in I:

other physical forms of apparatus without departure therefrom. It is apparent, therefore, that the form of apparatus illustrated in the drawing fort-he purpose of disclosure has been given solely in the illustrative sense and not in any limiting sense.- The scope ofthis invention is best deflned by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In an indicator for-a predetermined loss of the fluid medium in a fire extinguisher, abase, a

member rotatably associated with the base to support the fire extinguisher, a springto yieldinglyoppose rotation of the member, an indicator proper associated with the base, a cover for the indicator proper, an arm on the member, a pin associated with the arm adapted to support the cover but adapted to move away from the supporting position upon a predetermined loss of weight of fluid medium in the container, whereby member adaptedto support a flre extinguisher, a

spring to yieldingly oppose rotation of the-member, an indicator, an indicator cover, an arm on the member having a passage therethrough, a 'pin slidably adjustable in the passage and adapted to support the cover until a predetermined loss of fluid medium occurs, and a set screw to secure said pin in said passage whereby the pin may be adjusted to, remove support from the cover at any desired predetermined decrease of fluid medium in the extinguisher.

v 3.. ma support for a fire extinguisher containing a fluid medium and an indicator for a predetermined loss of fluid in the fire extinguisher,

- thecombination comprising a base, a rotatable movement of the cover, an arm on the member,

and a pin adjustably secured on said arm and adapted to extend through all the passages to support said cover, said pin being movable away from its supporting position upon a predetermined loss of the fluid medium in the container,

whereby the cover will move from its position covering the indicator proper.

4. In an indicator for a predetermined loss of fluid medium in a fire extinguisher, rotatable means adapted to support an extinguisher, means to yieldingly oppose rotation of said means, indicating means, means to cover the indicating means, supporting means on the rotatable means for said covering means, and means for adjusting said supporting means with respect to said covering means, whereby any predetermined amount of decrease of fluid medium may render said supporting means inefiectiva 5. In an indicator for a predetermined loss'of' determined loss of fluid medium, said second named supporting means being movable away from the supporting position upon a predetermined loss of fluid medium to thereby'permit the movable means to move from the position normally concealing the indicating means.

6. A loss of weight indicator for a fluid medium container comprising a rotatably mounted member adapted to support the container, means to yieldingly resist rotation of said member, an' indicator for indicating a predetermined loss of weight of the container, indicator concealing means movable with respect to the indicator, and means associated with said rotatably mounted member adapted to support said indicator conceaiing means in a position concealing said indicator, said supporting means being movable to a non-supporting positionupon apredetermined loss of weight of the container.

'1. A loss of weight indicator for a fluid medium container comprising a rotatably mounted member adapted to support the container, means to yieidingly resist rotation of said member, an indicator for indicating any desired predetermined loss of weight of the container, indicator concealing means movable with respect to the indicator, and means associated with, said rotatably mounted member adapted to support said indicator concealing means in a position concealing said indicator, said supporting means being movable to a non-supporting position and being adjustable to release said indicator concealing means at any desired predetermined loss of weight of the container.

8. A loss of weight indicator for a fluid medium container comprising a base, a member rotatably mounted on said base and adapted to support the container, means to yieldingly resist rotation of said member, an indicator mounted on said base for indicating a predetermined loss of weight of the container, indicator concealing means adapted to be supported in a position overlying said indicator and to fall away from said indicatorupon removal of said support, means associated with said base'to guide the movement of said indicator concealing means with respect to a said indicator, and means associated with said rotatably mounted member adapted to support said indicator concealing means, said supporting means being movable to a non-supporting position upon a predetermined loss of weight of the container. 9. A loss of weight indicator for a fluid medium container comprising a base, a member rotatably mounted on said base and adapted to support the container, a compression spring mounted between said base and said member and adapted to yieldingly resist rotation of said member, means to maintain said spring under precompression when no container is supported on the rotatably mounted member comprising a stop on the base adapted to limit rotation of the rotatably mounted member under the influence of the spring, an indicator for indicating a predetermined lossof weight 01' the container, indicator concealing means movable with respect to the indicator, and means associated with said rotatably mounted member adapted to support said indicator concealing means in a position concealing said indicator, said supporting means being movable to a non-supporting position upon a predetermined loss of weight of the container.

10; A loss of. weight indicator for a fluid medium container comprising a base, a member rotatably mounted on said base and adapted to support the container, a compression spring mounted between said base and said member and adapted to yieldingly resist rotation of said mem- 'ber,'means to prevent overcompression of said spring when a container is supported on the rotatably mounted member comprising a stop adapted to limit the rotation of the rotatably mounted member under the influence of the container, an indicator for indicating a predetermined loss of weight of the container, indicator concealing means movable with respect to the indicator, and means associated with said rotatably mounted member adapted to support said indicator concealing means in a position con- HENRY manner mucus. 

